King speaks on rights issue at State Theater

Kelly Cantrall

Right to Life Kentucky Heartland sees the rights of the unborn as a civil right, and brought in a speaker who knows something about fighting for human rights.

Alveda King, niece of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., spoke Thursday night at the Historic State Theater in Elizabethtown as part of an event hosted by the Right to Life Kentucky Heartland.

King’s talk, “How Can the Dream Survive?” explored the effects of abortion on women and society. She told the audience personal details about her own experiences, including of her two abortions.

King recounted some of her family’s experiences and their fight for the civil rights of black Americans. But she emphasized the fight isn’t over, because the civil rights of the unborn were being violated.

King said in an interview that, “an abortion is a genocide to the human race,” which is why she feels compelled to spread her message to groups such as the one gathered at the Historic State Theater.

“Life is a civil right,” she said, and she hopes the audience took away some insight from the evening.

“I would like people to be informed, educated and activated,” she said.

King told the story of her own conception and how her mother, Naomi, contemplated aborting the pregnancy but Naomi’s father urged her not to.

King then told the crowd about her own abortions, one of which she said was involuntarily performed by a doctor, and another that she sought.

She told the audience she had contemplated a third, but the baby’s father and her own father encouraged her to continue the pregnancy. She rededicated her life to God, she said, and now is a pro-life advocate. She works as pastoral associate of African-American Outreach for the Catholic pro-life group Priests for Life. She also is a board member of Georgia Right to Life.

King was joined at the event by local members of Right to Life. Several made silent demonstrations with signs carrying messages such as “Longed for a Child” and “Women Do Regret Abortion.”

One of the women carrying a sign that read “Angry” came to the podium later to tell her own story. Debbie Redd introduced herself as a 36-year-old grandmother, after her daughter became pregnant at 15. She said she wanted her daughter to get an abortion because of what having a baby would do to her life as well as Redd’s own. She said the decision came out of her anger, hence the message on her sign.

But Redd’s daughter didn’t want to seek an abortion, and Redd came around to her way of thinking. Her granddaughter was born in November.

“She just brings us so much joy,” she said through tears.

She turned her sign around revealing a picture of her granddaughter and the word “love.”